Game 65 AfterThoughts: These Dallas Stars Are Different

Justin Hryckowian was Involved

Song of the Game

Oh, you're so condescending
Your gall is never ending
We don't want nothing, not a thing from you

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Tonight, the Stars smelled blood. They swept their three games with the Edmonton Oilers by embarrassing their goalie, antagonizing their superstars, and generally looking every bit like the team Pete DeBoer kept saying they didn’t need to be last year.

In their three victories over Edmonton this year, the Stars outscored the Oilers 19-8. And tonight felt like the culmination of it all, as penalties, posts, and post-whistle scrums littered a contest the Stars continued to push the Oilers out of.

That’s not a shot at DeBoer, really. In a real sense, this sort of hockey probably wasn’t the way the last few years of Stars teams were wired, so DeBoer may have been right to trust their playmaking and structure over this level of physicality, moxie, and take-no-guff-ness.

Those other Stars teams were drilled well, and they made it to the Conference Final three times in a row because of how well they could execute plays with the puck and defend in their end. The hockey under Pete DeBoer was some of the best we’ve ever seen in Dallas, and that shouldn’t be overlooked just because of how things ended.

But tonight, you couldn’t help but mouth “wow” a couple of times. (Or at least I did.) Because tonight, Glen Gulutzan’s team hit everyone in American Airlines Center over the head with how incredibly far this team has come since Roope Hintz got his foot splintered last May.

At first, this game was all about the goaltending, or rather Edmonton’s lack of it. Tristan Jarry and his team have not meshed well since the Oilers finally decided to swap Stuart Skinner out for a goalie who was sent down to the AHL last season, and you could see every bit of the problem tonight. Jarry’s tracking wasn’t at its best, and Jason Robertson made it 3-0 before the first period was up when he beat Jarry’s glove.

As Ray Ferraro said right after Robertson’s (first) goal, Edmonton was getting run out of the building. Shots on goal were 10-2, and Dallas was sitting pretty with 40 minutes to go. Jarry apparently couldn’t be taken out because Edmonton (ostensibly) wanted to save Connor Ingram for their game tomorrow in St. Louis, and you have to think at least a little of the Oilers’ frustration in this one was coming from not the opposing team, but the people who are supposed to be helping them win games, from the GM’s offices on out.

You figured Edmonton would have a push coming, but before they could muster it, Dallas tacked on two more goals in the second. And once it got to 5-0, the game really started going haywire (much to Jake Oettinger’s chagrin, one would imagine).

With structure starting to break down on both sides as Edmonton got frantic, you could see a path for the Oilers’ high-potency offense to turn this into a very different kind of game. And when Evan Bouchard and Jason Dickinson got a couple goals back, that’s exactly what it looked like we were going to have.

That’s when Dallas found a way to respond, in multiple senses. First, special teams started polluting things, but the Stars’ penalty kill kept the best power play in the NHL off the board, and that stalled any potential comeback.

The second part of that response came at the end of the second period, when the Oilers’ power play was pressing for a goal, only to have Arttu Hyry—a player with just 10 career NHL games—participate in another solid kill. Hyry would clear a puck just as the second period ended, and it went right into Draisaitl’s breadbasket, and he promptly went full banana sandwich, slashing Hyry from one side while McDavid’s eyeballs turned completely white as he tried to fight through the crowd at the other.

That’s when Connor McDavid ran into Justin Hryckowian, who suddenly found himself trading shots with a generational NHLer. After the game Hryckowian was very muted, clearly trying not to get big-headed about being so thoroughly established in the heart of Edmonton’s kitchen. But man, what hasn’t this undrafted rookie been able to do when called upon?

“I thought our guys responded really well,” Gulutzan said. “We’re not taking anything. We’re not taking anything. We kept playing our game. We still stayed physical and backed each other up.”

Really, what hasn’t this team been able to do this year, when hit with adversity? Sure, January started out rotten, but every team hits some kind of skid, and the Stars have responded to their by ripping off win after win against every team but Colorado—and that one was probably a win as well, if Hryckowian is just a little more selfish with the empty net.

These Stars look outstanding right now. They really, really do. And for the last couple of weeks, they’ve been doing it without the player who was supposed to be that missing element, in Mikko Rantanen, and without the center whose broken foot was not responded to when the Oilers gave the Stars the business last year.

These Stars have become something different, something much more intimidating. And they’re doing it with Colin Blackwell, Adam Erne, and Justin Hryckowian. They’re doing it with a resurgent Jamie Benn and a magical Matt Duchene, with Mavrik Bourque slotting seamlessly onto their top line. Glen Gulutzan has kept Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen together all year, shorthanded and otherwise, and he’s dared the league to find a way to beat them.

This Stars team can outscore their opponents, but they’ve also grown back into a group that can defend with the best of them. And tonight, it was crystal clear that they’ve also become a group that doesn’t get pushed around anymore.

“You’re either gonna take it forever, or you’re gonna respond,” Gulutzan said. “And I liked our response.”

Highlights and the Lowdown

Gulutzan kicked off the game by putting the Hryckowian line out against Leon Draisaitl and company, perhaps showing a bit of the Stars’ plan for how they were going to match up against the two all-world Edmonton centers.

But it was another former trophy winner that opened the scoring, as Jamie Benn put a Heiskanen rebound home before Tristan Jarry could find it.

Jarry was annoyed about the contact at the top of the crease, but with Benn clearly outside of it, no challenge came, and the goal stood.

Dallas got another couple of good chances right after that one, including a Wyatt Johnston deke that sent Jake Walman sliding the wrong way, and might have beat Jarry, had it not gotten blocked at the last minute.

The Oilers’ goalie was giving up big rebounds early, and he looked like he was having trouble tracking pucks. Dallas could smell blood, and shots mounted to 5-0 for the home side in the opening seven minutes.

Oettinger’s opening save was a tricky one, but he flashed the blocker to send a deflection up into the netting, showing tracking that looked the polar opposite of what was happening at the other end of the ice.

Vasily Podkolzin nearly equalized after a pass found him alone in front, as he sneaked behind Harley to post up at the, uh, post. But just as he reached the puck around to tuck it past Oettinger, Thomas Harley’s stick arrived, and that threw off Podkolzin just enough to send the puck off the post and out of harm’s way.

As so often happens, a missed chance at one end was followed by a goal at the other. Because not too much longer, Esa Lindell pushed Kasperi Kapenen off the puck, and the Stars went the other way, with Bourque making a slick play along the wal to send Duchene and Steel on a 2-on-1. Duchene waited what seemed like too long before proving that he knows what he’s doing better than you do, and threaded a pass right to Steel’s tape after he was practically in the crease for a very slick tap-in, making it 2-0.

The Stars’ third goal was more straightforward, as Jason Robertson took a gift from Evan Bouchard, then came down the wing and ripped a puck past Jarry’s glove, off the post, and back off Jarry’s skate before dribbling into the goal.

That was the point where you wondered if Edmonton might have considered a goalie change, except for the fact that they had that game against the Blues tomorrow, and that Connor Ingram left his last game after an extremely violent collision with Nathan MacKinnon that you may have heard about.

But Jarry stayed put, and Dallas took a 3-0 lead to the first intermission.

The second period got even crazier, and quickly, starting with Jason Dickson evoking the spirit of Jordie Benn (real ones remember) by lifting Lundkvist’s stick into the troposphere, and getting an interference penalty as a result.

Wyatt Johnston wouldn’t need long to capitalize on the power play, because he usually doesn’t, and it was 4-0 with Johnston tying Dino Ciccarelli’s power play goals record in a season just like that:

It then became 5-0 in ugly fashion, as Jarry showed the jitters had not disappeared during intermission.

That fifth goal transformed the game, and an Oilers push came out of shame as much as anything, with the Stars perhaps getting a bit overexcited about the idea of making it 6-0, and breaking down in coverage as a result. Evan Bouchard was then able to walk in and wire one far side to get Edmonton on the board.

Things got chippy after 5-1, and Connor McDavid showed some leadership by wrestling Wyatt Johnston away from the Oilers’ net after a save and slamming him into the boards. That would not be the last of McDavid’s petulance the Stars would see in this game.

Like Bouchard, Jason Dickinson would also atone for a mistake with 8 minutes to go in the second period. After Jamie Benn had trouble with a puck at the Stars’ blue line, Edmonton pounced with numbers, and Dickinson had far too much time and space at the crease as a result, deflecting a shot up and over Oettinger without much in the way of resistance.

Harley got tagged with an interference penalty shortly after that, and suddenly Edmonton had a look at the hockey game. But after some good penalty killing by Lindell and Steel, the Stars would get the best chance of all, when Sam Steel fanned on a shot, only to create a golden chance for Myers in the ensuing chaos that Jarry got a desperation glove on.

Adam Henrique later hit a crossbar on a rush of his own, and you had the feeling that the game was far from decided at that point, despite the scoreline.

McDavid then took an unnecessary penalty away from the play, giving Myers a shot to the helmet that wasn’t missed by the officials. No goals came of that 4-on-4 and partial power play, but Edmonton got another one with 1:26 to go when Bäck tried to body his man, only to wind up getting an interference call himself.

It was a critical kill, given how tenuous the Stars’ hold on the game felt, but a good block from Hyry on a pass to Draisaitl kept them from trouble, and a great save from Oettinger after Hyman got a breakaway out of nothing avoided any conversion.

That’s when things got crazy. Just as the period ended, Arttu Hyry cleared the puck on the penalty kill, and it nailed Leon Draisaitl, who wasn’t amused. Things kicked off from there, with McDavid going after Hyry, but only getting as far as Hryckowian, who is no stranger to these sorts of things.

Draisaitl was initially given a major for his slash on Hyry (which you can barely see as the camera angles change), but after review, it was downgraded to a minor, with Hryckowian and McDavid getting two for roughing themselves. All told, Dallas would start the third period at 4-on-4, with about 1:30 of power play in the bank.

That power play looked like the one to get Johnston the record outright, when Benn found him all alone between the circles for a one-timer, but for once, Johnston missed the net. Apparently Benn decided to handle things himself after that, because he converted the power play himself with the sort of shot off the wing that he’s scored a whole lot of over his career, and it was 6-2 early in the third, quelling most potential Edmonton ruckus.

The goal came with Edmonton’s two superstars still in the box, and their reaction was pretty much the whole night for Edmonton outside of that brief push in the second period:

Jason Robertson nearly got his hat trick on a horrible giveaway by Connor Murphy, but like Johnston earlier, Robertson surprisingly didn’t convert the gilt-edged chance, and we moved along.

Just to rub salt in the wound for Edmonton, Oettinger came up with a flashy glove save to rob Matt Savoie. But things went back to nasty after that, when Josh Samanski sent Hryckowian into the boards with a dangerous tripping penalty that Colin Blackwell immediately responded to.

Somehow, Hryckowian got a minor after Frederic wrapped him up after he got to his feet, and manpower was even.

But that didn’t last long, because Darnell Nurse became the fourth Oiler to take a penalty for his actions on Hryckowian when he cross-checked him hard enough to snap his stick in half midway through the third period:

Dallas wouldn’t score (though Johnston had a look), and Esa Lindell would end it a bit early after whacking Dickinson’s stick out of his hands for some poetic bookending to Dickinson’s earlier penalty on Lundkvist, sending Edmonton to the power play. But despite McDavid and company staying out for nearly two minutes, the closest they came to beating Oettinger was a Bouchard missile off the bar and out.

More post-whistle nonsense happened after Dallas killed the penalty, as everyone seemed determined to make the sort of statement a team losing 6-2 to a playoff rival tends to try to make. With 2:21 to go, Nurse and Dickinson paired off with Wyatt Johnston and Mavrik Bourque, and all four were given double-minors for roughing to end their nights. Trent Frederic and Lian Bichsel would also get their nights ended a bit early after some jawing and nonsense away from the play.

But Matt Duchene put the biggest punctuation mark you could ask for on this game when he did this to Spencer Stastney, Jake Walman, and for the seventh time, Tristan Jarry.

Lineups

Dallas brought the same group as last game:

Robertson-Johnston-Bourque
Steel-Duchene-Benn
Bunting-Hryckowian-Erne
Bäck-Hyry-Blackwell

Lindell-Heiskanen
Harley-Lundkvist
Bichsel-Myers

Oettinger

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The Albertan Petroleum Conductors had these lines:

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolzin - Draisaitl - Roslovic
Savoie - Dickinson - Kapanen
Henrique - Samanski - Frederic

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Murphy
Walman - Stastney

Jarry

After-AfterThoughts

• Thomas Harley said this morning that his stretch pass to Colin Blackwell that led to the Stars’ first goal of the game against Vegas was a situation where he saw the players changing, so he opted to fire the long pass by the bench in hopes that it would get through while the players were still getting onto the ice.

  

  It ended up being closer than he would have liked, but full credit to Harley: his pass made it through, and the Stars scored. In a game where space and time for making plays was at a premium, that play wound up being just what the doctor ordered.

• Jason Robertson’s response about whether he knew the kicked-in goal that was waved off against Vegas was invalid: “Yeah, I don’t practice that.”

• The AAC crowd booing every time McDavid touched the puck late in the third period was great. The “USA, USA” chants, less so. But the energy was pretty great in this one tonight.

• Of no consequence, this coincidence: Nils Lundkvist ended the game -2, which was almost as low as Connor McDavid (who finished -3).

• Jamie Benn had a moment on the Stars’ final power play where he easily could have taken a shot in pursuit of his hat trick, but he dished it off to Wyatt Johnston without a second thought. Benn also changed extremely early on that power play, clearly caring not a whit for any chance at his own glory.

  • Gulutzan on Jamie Benn:

    • “The way he was snapping them in there…a little bit of the Jamie Benn that I remember when I was here [in 2013].”

    • “He’s on a 20-some goal pace. I think he’s plus-15 or 16, or something like that. He’s having himself a heck of a year.”

• Somewhat lost in all this was Jason Robertson’s 4-point night, as he managed to get back out in front of Johnston for the team lead in goals—for now. It’s 36 to 35, and I don’t know that anyone can bet against Robertson to keep piling them up, with the way he’s playing. (But then again, you can’t really bet against Johnston either, right?)

• Arttu Hyry went 8-for-14 on faceoffs, continuing his torrid work on the dot since his recall this year. Maybe that’s what McDavid and Draisaitl were really angry about.

  • Or maybe it was the fact that Hyry led all Stars forwards in shorthanded ice time tonight (2:37) as Dallas kept the best power play in the league off the board. Arttu Hyry had 10 games of experience in the NHL coming into tonight.

• Jason Robertson’s postgame media scrum was pretty great, if you haven’t seen it. Give it a watch. As much as the team is clearly trying to stay even-keeled even after big wins, it’s clear that they are feeling every bit of the energy their fans are, right now.